Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting

Oh wow, these vegan coffee cupcakes with coffee buttercream turned out better than I ever expected!

And the color was a surprise! I was expecting the cupcakes themselves to have more of a light color, more like the color of the frosting. But no, this is a deep dark rich brown.

I did use quite a lot of coffee in these though. Well, I don’t know if you’d agree that it was a lot. I used three tablespoons of a nice strong blend of instant coffee so I imagine each cupcake is around equal to a cup of instant coffee.

And then I used another tablespoon of instant coffee in the frosting!

So the coffee flavor is strong with these guys! But not too strong. I think it’s a perfect flavor blend. They’re unmistakably coffee flavored without being overpowering.

And then I couldn’t tell you why, but the addition of coffee to the frosting seemed to make it super creamy! Like more creamy than frosting has ever been before.

And it just worked so well as a topping for these cupcakes. Like coffee and cream!

There is a little cinnamon in the recipe and cinnamon goes well with coffee so I sprinkled a little on top of the cupcakes too.

If you love coffee and cupcakes, then you will love these vegan coffee cupcakes! They’re:

Perfectly moist

Deliciously rich

Richly flavored

Topped with coffee buttercream

Keep them covered at room temperature where they will last for a couple of days or covered in the fridge where they will stay fresh for up to a week.

So what do you think of these gorgeous vegan coffee cupcakes? Post your comments/thoughts/questions down below. And if you make the recipe rate it and tag us #lovingitvegan on instagram too if you take a pic. It warms the cockles of my heart to see your kitchen creations!

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners.

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the brown sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix in.

Mix the instant coffee with the 2 Tbsp of Hot Water into a thick paste and then mix into the soy milk (or other non-dairy milk). Add to the mixing bowl along with the vanilla, vegetable oil and vinegar.

Prepare the flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp of flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp of Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy and then add it in.

Whisk the batter with a hand whisk briefly just to remove lumps. Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake liners and place into the oven to bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before moving the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Prepare your frosting by adding the powdered sugar and vegan butter to the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix the instant coffee with the soy milk and vanilla until no lumps remain. Add this in. Starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth. If your frosting is too thin add in more powdered sugar, if it is too thick, add in a little more soy milk a drop at a time until it reaches the right consistency. It should be very thick for best results.

About the Author

Hi I'm Alison! I'm a passionate vegan foodie, recipe creator and author of Simple Vegan Dinner Recipes, a digital program created so that you always know the answer to: 'What's For Dinner?' I believe in simple, delicious, accessible and unpretentious vegan food, without unnecessary or hard to find ingredients.

I like your blog cause you don’t share only vegan, gluten free, healthy and raw stuff, you share really good vegan desserts that make us vegans forget that we don’t eat what everybody else does! <3 I can’t wait to bake these!

I just made this! Literally minutes ago! Only thing I was confused on was the consistency of the icing, lol looks fluffy in the image and mine looks thick/smoothe. Aye a cupcake without the frosting and I loved it. 🙂 one of the best vegan cupcakes

So glad you liked it! I think any difference in the icing consistency is down to the brand of vegan butter you use. I’ve used lots of different brands and got slightly different results. The important thing is that it must be thick enough to pipe on your cupcakes. If it is – then you have a good frosting!

You can leave it out, but you’ll have to adjust your flour down to compensate. The reason the vanilla cupcakes don’t use a flax egg is because it affects the color and makes them look more like seed cakes than vanilla cakes, however, I have noticed that using a flax egg seems to make the cupcakes rise better. They do rise without the flax egg and you can leave it out if you adjust the dry ingredients, but where possible I think it’s usually preferable to leave it in.

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